1. Technical Field
This invention pertains to grasping and moving light-weight items. In many industries, processes, and hobbies, small components or items must be moved from one place to another, in areas with space restrictions making it difficult to properly lift and place the item with a human hand. In these situations, it would be particularly useful to have a hand-held tool which is less bulky than a human hand, which is vacuum activated to pickup and move light-weight items.
An area in which such a hand-held pick-up tool may prove particularly useful is the placement of electronic components, such as integrated circuit chips and chip resistors, onto mounting boards, during assembly or rework operations. The same device may be used to remove such components from space restricted areas to enable close visual inspection. Similarly, small components used in various hobbies, and automotive parts being installed in a confined area, may be easily grasped and moved by a process utilizing such a hand-held pick-up tool.
2. Background Art
Certain tools are known which use suction to move lightweight items in space restricted areas. For example, a vacuum pencil is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,337,897 to Lerner, et al. This device utilizes a tube enclosed plunger to create a vacuum to aspirate excess solder and small work parts into the tube for removal. The usefulness of this device is limited to the removal of components small enough to fit into the tip of the slender tube. Release of the component is accomplished by removing the tip of the tube, or by releasing the plunger to push the component through the opening in the tube.
A device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,327 to Van Deuren grasps light-weight items through the use of both a plunger to create suction and a pair of jaws. The dual grasping mechanism is quite complex. Like the Lerner device, the size of the component to be picked-up is limited by the mechanical construction of the Van Deuren tool, since the component must be small enough to fit between the jaws.
Other manually operated suction devices are known in the prior art. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,846 to Poli, a tool is described for removing excess molten solder. Solder may be pulled into the this tool by manually compressing a bellows, which draws air and near-by solder into the tool as the bellows is allowed to expand. Although this device is useful for picking-up solder, it could not be used to grasp items larger than the tool's opening, as no means is provided to restrict inward air flow to create a vacuum to capture a surface of a component.
Some devices designed for the removal and application of contact lens utilize a vacuum to secure and move the lens. Thus, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,424,486 to Corley, 4,071,272 to Drdlik, 4,123,098 to Shoup, and 4,079,976 to Rainin, et. al describe various apparati expressly devised to remove or install contact lens. These devices are uniquely suited to grasping a lens of the weight, shape, and material of a contact lens, but are not designed to take advantage of a person's manual dexterity for fine positioning of light-weight items. Furthermore, these devices are not intended for use in space restricted areas, as they are designed to allow placement of the tool carried lens onto the user's eye.
Of course, suction may be used in other contexts, for picking up liquids or heavy items. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 2,752,199 to Newell describes a squeeze bottle which may be used to dispense predetermined amounts of liquids by squeezing the resilient container. U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,068 to Piazza discloses a device which utilizes suction to pick-up golf balls. Although each of these devices is effective for its intended purpose, they are not useful for picking-up light-weight components. The Newell squeeze bottle provides no grasping mechanism, as it is designed for dispensing. The Piazza retriever is too bulky to be used for small or fragile components.
Of those devices known in the prior art for moving light-weight items such as electronic components and hobby parts, each is mechanically limited as to the size of the item to be moved, either by restrictions in the size of an opening through which the item is to be pulled, or by the complexities of mechanical grasping mechanisms. A hand-held device is needed, which is thin enough to be used in space restricted areas, and which can reach and grasp light-weight items of a variety of sizes and shapes.